Today, I’m privileged to be hosting some workshops at the Fire Up conference, hosted by the Inter-Institutional Teacher Education Council of West Michigan (ITEC-WM). Believe it or not, I’ll actually be speaking on something pretty far removed from the Common Core, but very near to the driving purpose of Teaching the Core and anything else […]
Archives for October 2012
Keyboarding Skills and the Common Core
If you’re a K-6er trying to incorporate the grade-specific Common Core State Standards (CCSS), you’ve probably noticed an interesting skillset nestled within anchor standard W.CCR.6: keyboarding! That’s right! While I spoke about W.CCR.6 as an anchor standard in this post, I didn’t delve into the grade-specific standards contained within it, and therefore I didn’t really […]
How to Get Students to Really Listen, Summarize/Paraphrase, and Respond to Peers
If you’re noticing a large gap between your students’ speaking skills and the ambitious Speaking and Listening Standards within the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), you’re not alone: many teachers that I talk to share how difficult it is to have discussions or debates in which students actually listen to one another and respond. Mentioning […]